New here

Greetings Ladies, I was informed of this site by Chandi- thankyou!
My story: AT age 39: Oct/01 Left modified radical, right simple (by choice), 16/17 nodes pos, ER/PR weakly pos, her2 pos, tiny tumour also found in right breast (thank the Lord for giving me the notion to have bilat mastectomy). 6 mos of CEF, 5 weeks rads, tamoxifen. Dec/02 liver mets- herceptin until Sept03- added navelbine for increase in liver mets- turfed it after 3 rounds for poor QOL. Took a break to go to Florida with my family. My sister was diagnosed with a seriously aggressive brain tumour and had surgery just after we got home so I took Christmas off to cope with my sisters diagnosis. CT in Jan04- lung mets now an issue- they were in the background for a number of months but I was asymptomatic so we didn't worry about it. Started weekly taxotere/herceptin.
I have had 2 cycles of this with marked improvement on my chest xray in just 2 doses- Praise God! The 3rd leg of my last cycle was deferred because of 6 mouth sores- OUCH and my neuts were right at cut off point. So I Just had herceptin on friday and again next friday.
My oncologist is the best!!! Most visits I am greeted with a hug- that's the best part of my treatment day! He has worked with me to acheive my goals and basically I am in the drivers seat and he gives me direction.
I also participate in WebMD message board for BCmets. There is also another interesting place and that is bcmets.org there is a breast cancer advocate- Musa Mayer who has had BC herself (no mets) but is VERY knowledgeable. I have heard her speak at a 'LIfe after BC" conference in Hamilton ON, she has also published 2 books. Great reading and very informative.
My key to my survival: my relationship with my Heavenly Father, most days it is His footprints in the sand that I see. My Hope lies with my God rather than the hands of man.
Blessings to all of you this day!
Elisabeth

Welcome and thanks for the ideas for other sites to gather info. Hope you will find some help and comfort here, as you are deep into a major fight. Taxotere was pretty hard on me - but the Herceptin has been my Godsend, keeping me NED.
With your spirit you will get past all this!

Hi Eilisa ,
Good to seee your post here, I am sure you will find lot of informations and encouragements here too, please keep posting of your recovery progress.

Hugs

Chandi

Marci =
I had very bad flu-like symptoms about the 3rd day after treatment. Felt like I had been run over by a truck or something. Could hardly get out of bed. I knew it was not flu as I did not have much fever and other symptoms like sore throat. Just the horrible body aches and fatigue as blood counts went down. Also has some mouth sores, but I found the eating ice during my treatment helped those be less awful.
I had the 3-week dose a total of 4 times. The last dose had to be cut as I was just TOO flattened by the regular dose. Maybe one reason mets appeared so quickly?
Those were the main problems.

In what ways was taxotere hard on you?

Hi there, thanks for the welcome. If you are on decadron(dexamethasone) with your taxotere, that is where the flu like symptoms come from - a withdrawal side effect from the dex- I get it too. One of my best friends is an oncologist and she told me that. I get awful mouth sores, so I will try ice next time.

I forgot something- the muscle aches come from the taxotere

This is why I do not take the steriods with the chemo. I don't like being sick the third day with flu like symtoms. I figure with all the other pre meds I don't need the steriods. That is only my choice and I am comfortable doing it. Blessings.